Least Expected Encounters
by Higuchimon
Summary: [one-shot, Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings Challenge, Season 12, Round 2: Honda x Anzu/Anzu x Honda, Supportshipping, au: demon/angel] Anzu's never seen a demon before. Her first sight of one isn't all that impressive, since he's battered and beaten and his wings broken. Perhaps that's why she dares to talk to him. Or perhaps it's something else.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
**Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters  
**Title:** Least Expected Encounters  
**Romance:** Honda x Anzu  
**Word Count:** 8,879||**Status:** One-shot  
**Genre:** Romance, Fantasy||**Rated:** PG-13  
**Notes:** This takes place in a fantasy AU. There is also some implied nudity.  
**Challenge:** Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings Challenge, Season 12, Round 2: Honda x Anzu/Anzu x Honda: Supportshipping  
**Summary:** [one-shot, Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings Challenge, Season 12, Round 2: Honda x Anzu/Anzu x Honda, Supportshipping, au: demon/angel] Anzu's never seen a demon before. Her first sight of one isn't all that impressive, since he's battered and beaten and his wings broken. Perhaps that's why she dares to talk to him. Or perhaps it's something else.

* * *

Anzu tilted her wings, letting a stream of warm air run through the feathers before she spread them wide. Everything seemed in order; her molt would be over soon. _I haven't itched too hard in a day or so. That's good news._ She checked one more time, bending the great appendages around so she could run her fingers through them carefully. Tending to wings took quite a lot of time, and it generally helped to have someone help one with it. Yuugi usually lent her a hand, but this time, he'd sadly begged off, pleading that Jounouchi seemed to need him more this year.

She wasn't bothered by it; she'd seen the signs coming for the last month or two already in the looks the two of them exchanged when they thought no one else could tell. It just meant she had to work harder to get her new feathers sorted out. That was why she'd come out here to the forest that sat at the foot of the city's mountains; the breeze helped tease a few stray feathers out. It wasn't as good as having someone else help, but it was better than she could do on her own.

Carefully she rose to her feet and tested the winds; perfect for a quick flight before she returned to the city. Up above, the sky streaked gold and scarlet as the sun tipped toward the horizon and clouds thinned with the evening breeze. She still had time. Demons wouldn't come out until the sun actually set. At least, that was what all of the elders told them.

No one she knew had ever actually seen a demon, including herself. She knew they existed; everyone knew that. They'd all seen signs of the dark creatures. But to have laid her own eyes on one? No, she hadn't.

Quick as could be, she crouched, then leaped into the air, wings spread out to catch the wind. She laughed for the sheer joy of it; there wasn't anything better in the world than flying short of dancing, and she could do that up here as well. She spun around before diving through the winds, pulling herself up at the last minute, sliding this way and that, plunging through a stray cloud and gasping as the chill soaked into her hair. She shook herself all over to get rid of the water once she passed through it, knowing she'd have to wash when she got home now.

Anzu couldn't have said quite what caught her eye, only that something did as she began to turn her flight back toward home. A movement, nothing more than that, in the deep forested depths below her. It wasn't often that her people entered those woods save on the upper tree levels. The lower levels didn't offer good protection or room to maneuver for people with wings.

She hovered, the tips of her wings flapping a little to keep her in place, trying to locate what she'd seen. _It probably wasn't anything. Maybe a deer. Or a hunter._ It wouldn't be the first time that she'd seen a human hunter going through the woods here. She always made a point of not getting seen herself, though. Her people preferred to stay apart from everyone, humans and demons alike.

Carefully she dropped down; even if this hunter, if hunter it was, saw her, he might not realize what she was if she moved quickly enough. She landed on a high branch, curiosity tickling at her to figure out just what this was. Hunter or demon or stray animal of some kind, it was a little too close to home for her comfort, and she wanted to make certain there was no chance of danger before she blithely flitted away.

Wind rustled the leaves below, ghosting through the branches, and bringing another sound as well: the sound of something moving through the brush. Anzu slipped down one more branch, letting the thick foliage hide her. She pulled her wings in closer, not wanting to knock any feathers loose to give her away.

Something moved below, something that wasn't just a stray animal, not with how carefully it _did_ move. Her eyes narrowed as she listened, straining for the slightest hint of what it might be. Footsteps. She nodded to herself; those were footsteps she heard. But not the regular ones that a human would make. There was a kind of hitch to them, and something else. Something that wasn't a sound, but a scent.

A sharp scent, one that brought to mind copper and something she'd never smelled before. It wasn't an aroma she liked, she decided right away, but one that urged her to get out of there, and find help. Anzu didn't move, though. She refused to go running before she found out just what she might need help with. How could she get that assistance if she didn't know what the problem was?

Light as a breeze, she jumped one more branch down, and now she could hear something other than stuttering footsteps.

Angels didn't have profanity, as such. There were words considered impolite, but all their legends of demons spoke of them being able to say words that would set an angel's wings on fire just to hear them. Anzu hadn't really believed those particular stories.

She did now. No one other than a demon could say what she heard right now. She didn't even understand the words, but the meaning behind them rang true and clear: something had upset this demon, and he didn't care if the entire world knew about it.

If a human had been the one below, she would've returned home, letting the outer rangers know what was going on, and they would have made certain the human found his or her way out of there in safety. But a demon would mean the greater warriors, the ones trained to fight the dwellers in the darkness.

At least it would if she'd acted with any kind of sense, she knew. As much as the routine had been drilled into her, she didn't go back up to alert the warriors. She moved farther down, fascinated by the idea of seeing a demon in person, and wondering what one was doing here in the first place.

"Hey." She rested one hand on the tree trunk, ready to get out of there in a heartbeat if attacked. She expected some kind of fierce reaction, if nothing else. It was a demon.

The moment she spoke, however, the demon below stumbled back, one foot catching on slick leaves beneath him, and landing solidly on his rear end. Anzu tried hard not to laugh, but couldn't help herself in the end: a silvery little peal echoed around as she dropped down again, wanting to get a better look at this demon that wasn't anything like she'd heard they were.

She thought he'd be taller than she was when on his feet. His hair was dark like hers, but styled into a strange kind of point, and his dark eyes glittered with annoyance and pain as he looked toward her. He wore a ragged kind of tunic, and she thought she caught a glimpse of something bright on one wrist before he pushed himself to his feet.

His wings caught her attention as he did, and she gasped involuntarily, eyes rounding in shock and sorrow. Demons had wings much like an angel's, feathers appearing in any color of the rainbow and sometimes more than one. Yuugi's, for example, glittered the same bright blond, violet, and red as his hair, while Jounouchi's shone bright as the sun, and her own rustled and gleamed like mahogany.

This demon's wings were tattered and torn, surely unable to lift him in flight, and she couldn't even tell what color the feathers were, or had been. All she could think of was how much whatever happened had to have hurt.

"What do you want?" He spat the words out, one fist clenching as he stared at her. "You're an angel, aren't you?"

"That's right." She shrugged, trying to pull her attention away from the mess on his back. "And you're a demon."

"That's right." He didn't move a muscle, still staring at her distrustfully. "I asked what you want."

Anzu opened her mouth, not sure of what would come out, and realized that she didn't even know what she wanted. She'd thought to find something harmless or at most mildly annoying. She hadn't imagined finding an injured demon. She struggled to find the right words, or any words at all. "Who are you?"

"What do you care?" He spat back, shifting around, the tips of his wings fluttering. She thought he winced; that didn't look good at all.

"Demons aren't supposed to be around here until past sunset. You're out early." She didn't think demons cared too much for laws, but it wasn't law that barred them, it was the light itself. Her teachers told her that demons couldn't stand the sun, no matter what.

He set his jaw firmly. "The sooner I get moving, the sooner I'll be out of here. You want that, don't you?" He shifted around, trying to get farther down whatever he was on that passed for a trail, and she clearly heard the hiss of pain as he hopped along, one foot lifted off the ground.

"You're hurt."

"You get an award for realizing the obvious, angel." He kept on moving, still keeping enough of his attention on her so he'd know if she moved closer.

Anzu stayed where she was, though. She didn't know a lot about tending to injured angels, let alone demons, but the sight of him moving like he was stirred a deep well of compassion within her. She couldn't just let him wander off without some kind of help.

"What happened to you?"

At first she didn't think he was going to answer her. He just kept staring back at her, all manner of thoughts she couldn't read flickering through his deep brown eyes. When he did, it wasn't exactly what she expected. "Humans happened to me. And you'd better leave before they happen to you too."

"Humans?" She'd seen a few of those from a distance, and found them kind of interesting, in a wingless sort of way. She'd never thought of them as dangerous and the idea that a demon would wasn't easy to wrap her head around. "What did they do to you?"

He gestured to his tattered wings with one hand. "They did that. Bound me so I couldn't escape, put me up for sale, ripped my wings to shreds so I couldn't fly away." When he moved, she saw that same gleam she had before, and realized what it was this time: some kind of a bracelet of his wrist. A whiff of magic tugged at her senses and she realized that had to be how he was 'bound'.

Then what else he said clicked in her mind and she shuddered. "For sale?" Damaging wings she could understand; if a human wanted to keep a creature that could fly imprisoned, wings would have to be dealt with. But what else he'd said…

"Yes, they sold me. More than once." Traces of scarlet rage burned bright in his expression now. "And I'm not going back to that, so you can just move on and forget that you saw me."

Anzu instead came closer, even as the demon moved away, tension rippling through his shoulders. "Not going to do that. You could die if you don't get some help." The closer she got, the more injures she could see. The wings had long since been healed, she realized, and she didn't know if she could do anything for those. But the way he held his ankle told her that needed to be wrapped if nothing else, and there were other injuries that peeked out through tears in his tunic. Now she recognized the rest of that scent: brimstone. Copper and brimstone, the scent of a demon's blood.

"Why would you want to help me?" He didn't move. She couldn't be sure if it was because he wanted any help or if he hurt too much right now.

Truth to be told, she didn't know why she wanted to help, other than he needed it. She'd heard more than enough stories about demons and what they did to angels or humans to keep her attention on him at all times, even though he didn't look as if he could harm as much as a leaf right now.

"Because someone needs to." That was the only reason she could think of that could make sense. She looked around the area, trying to remember what she knew of it. "There's a cave that way." She gestured closer toward the mountains. "You should be safe there, if you can make it, and I can bring some bandages." She racked her brain; she would need more than that, and she'd never made a habit of studying the healing arts. If she'd known she would meet a demon who needed them, she would've at least thought about it.

He didn't move, still staring at her. "How do I know you're not just going to call in your warriors and have me killed?"

Anzu glanced at him, a smile dancing around her lips. "Would an angel do that?"

"To a demon? Probably." As if something about her answer reassured him, though, he started to head in the direction she'd indicated, his every movement tired and weary. She stayed up out of reach, still mulling over what she would need to get from home, but cast a few more quick looks at him as she did.

One thing she knew she needed to get right away was something for him to eat. He looked like the humans hadn't fed him well. At least angels and demons could eat the same kinds of food, so she didn't have to worry about that. But he would need a lot of it. From his frame, he'd been well-muscled once upon a time.

"What's your name?" She was surprised to hear herself ask that, but only for a heartbeat. She would have to call him something. "You can call me Anzu." It wasn't her truename, of course, but she wouldn't have given that to anyone. Even Yuugi didn't know her truename, nor did she know his.

More tension rippled through him and he shook his head. "Doesn't matter."

"I'm not going to call you 'demon'." She flittered ahead of him, folding her arms and looking dead at him. "You can just tell me _something_."

Again he shook his head and she sighed. She'd never met a demon before, but if he were typical of his breed, then they were even more stubborn than Jounouchi, and she hadn't thought that was even possible. Well, maybe he'd give her something to call him by later. Right now she wanted to see him safely to the cave before she headed into the city to get the supplies.

* * *

Honda tried not to think about his injuries as he forged his way through the underbrush, keeping the pretty angel in view at all times. He didn't know why she was helping him, but right now, she was the only chance he had of recovering and getting back home.

Funny, after being gone nearly fifty years, he still thought of it has home. The caverns would _always_ be his home, no matter how long he'd spent with humans.

He wondered if this cave she talked about would have somewhere he could get a good bath at. He needed to wipe off everything about humans from him. At least as much as he could, until he could get home. Only a good soak in one of the hot springs would really get him clean, so far as he was concerned.

A small hiss slipped out between his lips as he stumbled over a stray rock, nearly ending up on the ground. He'd learned to balance himself without the full use of his wings years ago, but being out like this still made it difficult. As much as he disliked it, he was used to city streets, not the byways of the forest.

He wanted to get away from here as well. The caverns loomed large in the back of his mind, an endless parade of stone walls protecting his people from anything and anyone that might try to cause them harm. And if anyone did somehow manage to get in, the unyielding ranks of the demon warriors would shred them alive.

Honda glanced at his hands, missing his talons. If it weren't for the bindings…

He hissed again, this time directed at the silver bracelet firmly attached to his wrist. He could only hope that Bakura would be able to get it off him. He could only hope that Bakura would still be there to even try.

"This way!" The angel, Anzu, gestured him onward, and he limped his way along. He'd nearly shattered his ankle in his escape, and he'd barely had time to wrap it with a strip torn from his tunic. At least he knew how to avoid being aware of the pain. It wasn't something he could do forever, but it would suffice until he managed better.

The forest gave way to a flat plain, cut through by a sparkling river that wound out of sight. He licked his lips, his throat suddenly dryer than it had been before the sight of the water. He'd been on the run for almost a week and only the fact demons were of tougher breed than humans had kept him going through pain, hunger, and thirst. But even he couldn't go without water forever. The few drops he'd managed to steal on the way had really only made it worse. He hadn't been able to get to any abundant water sources until now. Every one of them had been controlled by humans.

Humans. He hated the very thought of them now. He'd never given them much consideration before, keeping most of his attention focused on the usual matters that kept a demon occupied growing up. Why think about humans when he could think about flying under star-filled skies and training against Atemu and Seto, awaiting the day when he would join the warrior corps?

Kind of strange how he'd gone from that to wanting to merrily burn down at least one human city, and more if he got the chance.

He stopped watching Anzu; he thought he knew where she was going, and he'd have to cross the river to get there anyway, so he wanted to get himself a drink. Maybe even rest a while. He'd barely stopped moving in the last week, only daring to do so in the depths of daylight, when the sun sapped too much of his strength for him to carry on anyway.

Part of him wondered if this would all turn out to be some kind of a strange fantasy, an illusion that would fade away as soon as he touched water or genuinely believed he was free. It wouldn't be the first time his 'master' had done something like that to him. He'd fought hard to escape the first couple of years, and almost had on more than one occasion. Spending most of the next five decades with a sorcerer who'd gone out of his way to deceive Honda more than once into thinking he was free just to rip that away from him taught him not to try it again.

The demon breathed harder at the thought of that. The sorcerer was still alive, too, which meant the whole possibility that this was some kind of a trick couldn't be ruled out.

_Guess I'll find out._ If he had the chance, he'd shred the sorcerer alive, just like his own wings had been shredded. He could never fly again because of that bastard. Nothing less than a miracle could fix his wings.

He tried not to even think about the angel for a few moments, flittering around so blithely above him, not even aware of how much seeing her wings _hurt_ him. If he were right, this was molting season, the time of year when angel or demon shed their feathers for a new set. Also known in the demon community as 'the time of year when you find out who your real friends are, because only a real friend would help you keep all your fallen feathers off the ground'.

Atemu had helped him. As had Bakura. Even Seto had once or twice, usually when he had nothing better to do with his time. But he'd helped all the same, and Honda had returned it each and every time.

He missed the feel of warm feathers against his hands. His own had once been dark brown, the same shade as his hair, and not too unlike the angel's. Seeing hers sent churning rage all through him and he once again imagined sharp talons tearing into that bastard of a sorcerer.

Finally he stumbled to a halt by the river, sinking down to his knees, breathing hard. He'd put himself through far more than he should have. He didn't even know if he'd be able to make it to the caverns, even with the angel's help. Assuming she gave it beyond helping him recover. He didn't want to count on it. He didn't want to count on her even helping his recovery.

He scooped up handfuls of water, sucking it down as quickly as he could. Cold almost to the point of being icy, with a sort of undertaste that he couldn't identify but did enjoy, he could've drunk for hours. The river looked deep enough to take a bath in, if it had been warmer than it was. Some demons could handle the cold; he wasn't one of them. He wanted heat, the hotter the better.

Anzu perched on a rock on the far side of the river, watching him drink. He took the occasional moment to look at her, wondering exactly what she had in mind. He hadn't really encountered any angels before her, but he didn't think they treated demons the way she was treating him. At best he would've expected her just to leave him be, and at worst to call the warriors. He'd heard many the tale about the shining white-clad warriors of her city, each one capable of giving a demon a good fight.

The demon would win in the end, of course, but it would be hard work, and that was when the demon would be in his or her best shape. Honda didn't count himself as being in the best shape. He might give a fledgling a small disagreement, but a full on fight? Probably not.

He had no intentions of telling her his name, not even the one he used for common conversation. He'd make up something if he really needed to, but it wasn't as if she needed to talk to a dozen demons. He'd know if she meant him.

Honda wanted to just close his eyes and rest there. What he did instead was push himself back to his feet, ignoring the pain in his legs and side and everywhere else that throbbed and ached as the legacy of his escape. A short way down the river he spied a set of stones that led across it. Good enough, he decided, and made his way there.

"That cave better not be too far from here." He was almost out of strength and the ability to shunt away the pain. If he didn't rest soon, he knew he'd pass out, and he had no intentions of doing so in front of an angel.

"It's not. You'll be there soon." Anzu promised. She flicked one wing ahead of them to indicate where the mountains rose. "It's right that way. I'll show you when we get closer."

He had little else to do but follow her, and keep an eye on the backtrail to make certain he wasn't followed. He didn't doubt for a moment the sorcerer was on his way. He just wanted to have a chance to rest first.

* * *

There was something about this demon that just caught at Anzu's attention. Something about how he clearly needed rest and food and medicine, and yet instead of sitting somewhere and bewailing his fate and his injuries, he just kept moving onward, refusing to give up for so much as a single moment. She wasn't sure what her reaction to having her wings shredded would be, but this stoicism surprised her.

By the time they arrived at the cave, dark shadows of night folded all around them. He could see better in the dark than she could, though she wasn't entirely blind either. He was the one who actually found the cave, and all but collapsed inside of it, no longer able to support himself.

"I'll be back by morning!" Anzu told him, peering through the darkness to where he lay on the ground half-curled into himself. "Are you going to be all right until then?" "Fine." He grated the word out, waving her away with one hand. "Don't worry about me." Apparently demons really were more stubborn than angels. She kicked off from the ground and shot into the air, rising high enough to get her bearings. The sooner she got home, the better. She was already _dreadfully_ late and everyone was going to be worried about her. She wasn't used to night flying either, and that would make everything a little more difficult. But she forged onward, knowing that if she didn't make it there and back, the demon might not survive. She couldn't let that happen.

She didn't stop to question why she couldn't. She just didn't want him to. She would have to tell someone about him sooner or later, since she couldn't keep taking supplies off without Yuugi or Jounouchi or Shizuka asking what was going on. They might even want to help her. She trusted them to give the demon a chance, but the real problem would be the warriors and those above them. Demons weren't known for their gentle dispositions.

_I'll figure out something._ Putting on her best stern face, she shot through the chilling night air until she finally reached the sparkling crystal city of the angels. Her friends were just going to love this.

* * *

"You found a _what_?" Jounouchi stared at her as if she'd suddenly sprouted extra wings or a third arm. "You're joking, right?"

Anzu shook her head, even as she packed bandages and healing creams into a basket. "He won't tell me his name or even anything to call him by but he's a demon. And he needs help."

Yuugi fidgeted, the tips of his wings twitching. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"If you're that worried, just stay out of reach." Anzu eyed two different creams, wondering if either of them would have any effect on the demon's wings. She didn't know if damage like that could ever be healed, but maybe she could at least soothe it some? Somehow? "But are you going to come help or not?" She wanted at least one person to lend a hand; she couldn't get everything she needed there by herself.

Jounouchi rolled his eyes. "Of course we are. Think we'd let you go back to a _demon_ without some backup?"

Anzu stifled a sigh. She didn't know how many times she'd have to say that this demon was hardly going to shred her alive. Even if he could, she thought he wouldn't. He just didn't seem the type.

"Well, he needs something to eat, if someone can get something? Maybe enough for everyone? We can all have dinner together!" There was very little like a shared meal to bring people together, in Anzu's opinion. She wished that she'd thought to ask what he might like to eat, or if there was anything he really needed. Next time, she promised herself.

Yuugi and Jounouchi exchanged a quick glance that she barely saw out of the corner of her eye, before Yuugi darted off, heading in the direction of the home he shared with his grandfather. Anzu kept on packing, thinking of everything she could imagine that he might need, above and beyond his injuries being taken care of.

"What are you going to do with him once he's healed up?" Jounouchi wanted to know. "And what if those humans come looking for him?"

"I won't let them take him." Anzu knew that for a fact. Angels avoided humans as best they could, but Anzu would do all within her power to protect someone else, even a demon. There were spells and incantations she could use that would protect the cave, so long as the demon stayed inside of it. It would confuse the humans and hopefully lead them to think he'd gone somewhere else.

Jounouchi watched her move around the room, his eyes dark and concerned. "Demons are dangerous, Anzu." They all knew the stories, every one of them. How once angels and demons had been the same breed, and the demons chose to walk away from the angels, over differences no one now remembered. Since that day, angels and demons kept themselves as apart as they could, angels taking to the heights of the mountains, and demons dwelling in caverns deep within the earth.

"I know. But he's not." At least he wasn't now. Not to her. "He's …" She tried to figure out how to say what she felt. "It feels like I'm supposed to know him. Like I know all of you."

It wasn't something that they spoke of often. Indeed, they hadn't spoken of it at all since the realization had come on them. Try as she might, Anzu at times couldn't even be sure if they'd spoken of it _ever_. It was something that they knew, that was all.

Angelic lore held it that certain souls were drawn to one another, over and over, in a never-ending cycle of life, death, and rebirth. No matter the time or place or species that one might be born in, those souls always found one another. Such a bond wasn't always romantic, though it wasn't unknown, either. From the moment Anzu met Yuugi, she'd known that they were friends. Neither of them had been proper fledglings at the time, scarcely able to flutter more than a few feet. Yuugi had played some kind of a game with leaves and twigs, and she'd come over, curious to see what he was doing. That was all it had taken. Something much the same happened when they met Jounouchi and later Shizuka.

Now with this demon, that some sort of inexorable call came, tugging at the depths of her soul. While the teachers all said that such a bond transcended species, no one she knew had ever forged such a one with a demon, of all creatures.

Yuugi slipped back into the room, a heavy basket on one arm. "Grandpa said I have to be back by morning."

Anzu hadn't even thought about how long they would be gone. The idea of an overnight picnic, camping out under the stars, would at least give them a cover. Not much of one, but it would get them through a night and she could think of other reasons to slip away, at least until he was better and …

Oh. He'd leave once he was better. He had to want to go back to his people, and maybe they could help him better than she could. Maybe they even knew someone who could fix his wings.

Anzu grit her teeth and pushed the thought out of her head. She'd figure out a way to deal with that when he left. Right now, he was waiting for her to come back.

* * *

Honda stretched out on his side, absently banging the bracelet on the nearest rock he could find. The more he banged it, the more he hoped that it would crack and he could take it off. No matter what, though, it remained snugly fit against his wrist, the runes traced into it still clear and shining, and all he did was get his hand covered in dust and scratches and streaks of blood from the sharp point of the rock.

_Should've known it would be like this._ The sorcerer did good work. He might've appreciated it more if it didn't mark him as a human's slave and make certain that his 'master' could find him once they were close enough.

If he got close enough and Honda knew about it with enough time to prepare, he'd make certain to kill the bastard. Maybe that would be enough to get the bracelet to shatter. Even if it wouldn't, the thought of shoving a spear through the one who had his life hell was more than pleasing enough. He wouldn't mind doing it two or three times, or fifty or sixty times. After fifty years, one killing wouldn't be enough.

He decided that once morning came, and he'd hopefully gained enough energy, he would go out and find something he could make a spear from. It wouldn't be the best spear, but if it did its job, he didn't care.

_Maybe that angel would have something she could lend me._ Assuming she actually came back, of course. He liked to think that she intended to, but whether or not her people would let her was the hard part. He doubted they'd be very thrilled to have a demon in the area, even one as broken as he was.

Broken. His wings twitched just a fraction at that, and he tried his best not to think about it. Nothing could fix them short of a miracle. Every feather torn out, and so long as he wore the bracelet, none would ever grow back; all of the bones broken and made certain to heal wrong so even if the feathers somehow returned, he still couldn't fly properly. Those humans hated anything that could do something they couldn't, which included flying.

"Hey!" Before he could fall into too deep of a funk, a familiar voice called out, and he looked up to see the angel standing just outside the cave entrance. That was unusual; it was still dark outside, and he hadn't expected her back before the next day, if then. She wasn't alone, either. There were two others with her, one a tall blond and the other…

Honda blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes, staring at the second angel. If he hadn't known any better…

"Is something wrong?" Anzu asked, leaning inward a little. "You look kind of strange."

"No. I'm fine." Which was a flat out lie, given the extent of his injuries, but he didn't care. "I didn't know you were going to bring company." How in the world had she persuaded two more angels to come with her? Did they even know what he was?

The blond folded his arms over his chest and stared at him. "Well, you didn't think we were gonna let our friend come see a demon without coming along, did you?"

Honda's lips twitched the faintest fraction. "I wouldn't have thought you'd let her come at all."

"Anzu wanted to come, so she came. She's kinda stubborn like that." The other one laughed, rubbing the back of his head. Honda wondered how an angel could look so much like a demon and yet not be one. He was almost the spitting image of Atemu; the only differences being one little curl of hair and not looking quite as confident as his old friend did.

Anzu stepped closer into the cave and set down the basket she carried with her. "This is Yuugi," she indicated the one who resembled Atemu, "and this is Jounouchi." The blond waved at him. "They're going to help me get you fixed up, and we're staying the night here."

Honda tried not to let his shock show, and failed miserably, his jaw hanging down for a heartbeat. "Why?" Why were angels helping him so much? Why didn't they just let him fend for himself?

"Because Anzu wants us to, idiot. She's our friend and she wants to help you." Jounouchi rolled his eyes even as he settled down into a clear spot in the cave. It was a little cramped, given the four of them, but Honda hardly felt himself in a position to argue about it. "Now, take off that stupid rag. Anzu said you've got some cuts to take care of."

If he had been in peak condition, Honda would've driven his fist into the blond angel's face, and likely made certain his talons dug into the other as well. As it was, he shot the best dirty look he was capable of at him.

"What if I don't want to?"

"Then you're being more of an idiot than I ever thought even a demon could be." Jounouchi retorted without a moment's hesitation. "What, don't you want to get yourself taken care of so you can go home?"

Honda opened his mouth and found that he had nothing at all to say to that. He managed another dirty look, though, even as he wriggled the tunic off. Modesty wasn't much of a thing between demons, not as humans generally practiced it, and he didn't much care about how angels did. If they didn't want to see his bare skin, then they shouldn't have asked him to take the tunic off. He tossed it aside; he would be quite pleased if he never had to put it on again. Shapeless and filthy, with two ragged holes in the back for his wings, that was all it was. A useless rag, one he was glad to get rid of.

"Go get some water from the river," Anzu ordered, yanking a bowl out of one of the baskets she had with her and shoving it at Jounouchi. He grumbled a little, but headed out anyway, and Honda didn't bother hiding his snickers. Nor did Jounouchi bother hiding the look he threw back over one shoulder.

Anzu sorted out more items she'd brought with her, setting out bandages and various bottles and containers of things that Honda didn't know the first thing about.

"I don't suppose you have any real answers for why you're doing this, do you?" Honda asked after a few moments. He tried not to pay attention to how his stomach growled; there was a definite aroma of food in the air, and he wanted to dig into it. He didn't stand a chance of healing properly unless he could get some food in him, and the sooner, the better. And the more of it the better too.

"Because you need the help. It wouldn't be right to just leave you here."

Honda rolled his eyes. "Why did you come back so soon? I thought you wouldn't be here until tomorrow."

"I thought so too, but Yuugi kind of suggested that we come back now." She glanced over at him, and the other angel ducked his head, a blush creeping across his cheeks.

"It was by accident. When I got the food, Grandpa asked if we were having a starlight picnic and I kind of said yes without thinking about it, so…"

Anzu's lips twitched for a few moments and Honda just laughed out loud anyway. "You might look like him, but you're nothing like Atemu."

In a moment, everyone stared at him. Anzu blinked a couple of times, head tilted to the side. "What do you mean?"

Honda swore to himself; he'd not wanted to bring up any of his friends, much less the demon prince himself. He thought about a quick lie, but from the looks two sets of eyes gave him, he wondered if he could get away with it. Probably not. So he shrugged.

"A friend of mine. You look almost like him, Yuugi." Speaking an angel's name, even if it wasn't their truename, tasted odd on his tongue. He wondered for a brief moment what Anzu's name would taste like. Before he could get lost in that thought, he reached out to brush one finger over the curl of hair on Yuugi's forehead. "He doesn't have this, though. And I think he might be a little taller."

Yuugi's eyes widened in surprise. "Whoa…I wonder if I could meet him."

Honda shrugged; the prince seldom left the caverns, so he sincerely doubted it. He didn't see a reason to crush the angel's hopes right now, though. "Who knows?" Besides, even if Atemu left, there was no reason for them to meet. The prince would leave for important reasons of state, not to do something ridiculous like meet an angel or look for a childhood friend gone for fifty years.

"What other friends do you have?" Anzu asked, accepting the bowl of water from Jounouchi as the other came back and settled back into his place.

"Why do you want to know about my friends?" Honda hissed, more from the sudden sensation of cold against his skin as she dipped a sponge in and began to wipe the dirt and dried sweat and blood off of him than anything else. It certainly had nothing to do with the faint whisper of her fingertips brushing close to his skin or the intense look she cast over him as she worked. Nothing at all.

Anzu paid more attention to what she was doing than what he was saying as she worked, or so it appeared to him. "Because it will give you something to think about that isn't what we're doing here."

She had him there. Honda sighed and tried to collect his thoughts. He definitely didn't want to say anything about how nice it felt to have someone else take care of him. "I have a sister, and a nephew. Our parents died long before I was captured by humans. Johji is a complete pain in every way you can imagine the word. I'd imagine he's what most humans think about when they think about demons. He's probably gotten worse since the last time I saw him. Especially since he's probably learned to fly by now." Not being able to fly hadn't slowed Johji down one bit when Honda had last seen him. Once he could take to the air, it would be impossible to hold him back.

Anzu kept on cleaning him up, while Yuugi worked food out of his basket and sorted it out into four sections, and he kept on talking. He spoke of Atemu and Seto, those who he'd been closest to, though Seto seldom grew close to anyone save for his brother Mokuba. He spoke of their friend Bakura, who knew a few things of healing and was possibly his only hope of being able to fly again one day, though he refused to admit how slim that chance actually was. He spoke of a demoness he'd had a crush on, Miho, and how he'd ended up caught because he'd gone to the human city to steal something he thought she would like.

"Was she pretty?" Jounouchi asked, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. Honda laughed, a bit of a self-deprecating sound.

"I thought so. I haven't seen her in so long, she could've mated with someone else by now." Demons mated as they chose, but he didn't expect Miho to wait around for him. For all any of them knew, he was dead anyway, tortured by humans.

Well, he liked to think if they really thought that, Atemu would've razed the city to the ground and found him anyway.

By the time he came to the end of stories he wanted to tell and people he wanted to mention, Anzu had finished cleaning him up and had begun to wrap bandages around his various injuries. Most of those were little more than scrapes and scratches, no matter how freely they bled, save for his ankle, but she took care of them all anyway. The feel of her fingers brushing against his skin sent chills all through him. He hadn't been this close to someone that he trusted in far too long.

_Do I trust her?_ The answer was as simple as it was plain: he did. She'd done nothing but help him since the first time that she'd seen him, and she'd even brought friends who could help as well, if only by giving him someone else to talk to. Strange as it was, it _felt_ right to talk to them, to exchange tales of their lives. It was almost as if he'd known them before and they were just catching up on time they'd spent apart.

"What is that?" Jounouchi asked when he finally stopped talking, and eating, long enough for a few words to get spoken. He flicked his fingers at Honda's arm as he spoke to make it clear what he was talking about.

"This?" Honda raised his arm to show the silver bracelet, his lip curling at the sight. "This is what all slaves in that city wear so that their masters can find them if they try to run away."

Three angels exchanged quick, worried glances. "So they could be following you now?"

"Probably." Honda toyed with the rock he'd banged the bracelet against earlier. "I wouldn't be surprised. I know he followed me out of the city. He's a sorcerer, so he could…"

Very few people, angels or humans, had ever seen a demon actively pale as Honda did at that moment when the bracelet warmed against his skin. He clenched the rock harder, almost enough to shatter it. "He's coming.

All of them were on their feet moments later. The cave didn't have much room in it, but when the sorcerer appeared, he seemed to take up far more of it than he should, by the way he glared at Honda alone.

"It's time for you to come home, slave." He bit the words off, paying little to no attention to anyone but Honda himself. "I may forgive you if you come right away."

"This guy's not going anywhere." Jounouchi declared, putting himself in front of the other. Honda stared; what kind of an idiot was this angel? It was just like Anzu, helping him when they hardly knew him.

The sorcerer raised one eyebrow a fraction. "I didn't realize angels would care about a soulless monster."

"We don't." Yuugi spoke up, his voice calm and sounding perhaps a little more like Atemu's than Honda expected. "We care about our friend. And you're not going to have him."

Anzu gave the sorcerer a look that Honda felt by rights should've had him backing away and possibly offering his firstborn child as an apology. He'd never known an angel could look that fierce. "You heard what they said. You don't have any rights here. These lands are under the rule of our people and we don't allow slavery."

The sorcerer's thin lips quirked into a vague, humorless smile. "I will have my property back. Come _here_." His eyes flashed dark gold and Honda found himself stumbling forward, no matter how hard he tried to stop himself. He breathed harder, struggling against the command for all he was worth.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." His legs appeared to have a different point of view on the matter as he came closer to the sorcerer. He wished he'd had a chance to make that spear.

_Wait…the rock._ He still held it in one hand, and he thought he could move just enough. He had to do this quickly. With all the strength he could manage, he threw it toward the sorcerer.

Unfortunately, without much room to move his arm back and get a good throw, the rock barely brushed the human's robe. He smiled a twisted smile. "Is that your idea of defiance? I suppose I have taught you well after all. You know better than to try to harm your master."

"Well, if he can't do it, then I suppose as his prince, I should take care of this."

Spell of control or not, Honda jerked in surprise at Atemu's clear ringing tones. A heartbeat later, the cave shuddered all around them, rocks crashing all over, and Honda found it difficult to stay on his feet. But not nearly so much as the sorcerer, who crashed down to his knees almost at once.

"Atemu…" Honda breathed out the name, turning slightly when he felt Anzu's arms going around him, keeping him on his feet as the angels and he made their way past the fallen sorcerer to the outside of the cave. "What is he doing here?"

The moment the group made it outside, Honda amended his question, if only to himself. _What are **they** doing here?_ Three demonic figures hung in the sky above, each giving a glare that by itself could've melted rocks and shaken the world, and together should've had anyone with a scrap of sense that had it turned on them questioning their life choices.

It wasn't just Atemu who hovered there, stern and unyielding. Seto and Bakura flanked him, each looking much as they had when he'd last seen them, save for being furious enough to split rocks.

"What human thinks they can enslave one of _my_ people and not pay the price?" Atemu didn't raise his voice, but he didn't need to. The utter silence that filled the area made his anger loud and clear.

The sorcerer stumbled past them, trying to grab for Honda as he did. Honda dodged away, and Jounouchi earned himself the demon's instant and eternal friendship by punching the mage in the face hard enough to knock him flat.

"I think I could learn to like that angel." Bakura faux-murmured, his white wings moving just enough to keep him in the air. Honda didn't fight the smile on his lips.

"I was just thinking the same thing." He still couldn't entirely believe that they were there. He'd dreamed more than once of his friends showing up to help him, but to actually see it happen? That went far beyond being a dream and into the realms of fantasy.

Anzu hadn't moved from his side, but looked up to where the other three demons hovered. "Could you introduce us?" Her eyes widened suddenly as the three began to lower, and her attention fastened on Atemu, jerking back and forth between him and Yuugi. "Whoa…they really do look like each other!"

Honda held back a hint of a grin, more because he kept at least part of his attention on the sorcerer, who surged upward suddenly to try to grab for him again.

"Honda Hiroto!" The sorcerer hissed, scrambling up from behind them and rushing forward. The bracelet glowed bright scarlet at the utterance of his name. "Defend me from these creatures!"

Seto rolled his eyes and darted forward to hover beside Honda, a very familiar golden rod in his hands. "Enough of this." He swung the rod hard, sending it smashing against the bracelet hard enough to shatter it.

The moment it broke, Honda gasped, drawing in his first completely free breath since the day the bracelet had been fastened on his arm. He didn't need to think about what he did next, since he'd fantasized about it for years. He drove his fist as hard as he could in the sorcerer's face, sending him sprawling backwards, head crashing against a rock. He didn't move again.

"What are you all doing here?" Honda asked as soon as Atemu, Seto, and Bakura landed. Bakura snorted.

"That's not exactly the kind of greeting that one generally gives after fifty years." The white-haired thief eyed Honda and his new…friends? Companions? People he knew? Whatever. "Hanging out with angels now?"

"They helped me." Honda gestured toward the wrappings on his ankle and bandages on his torso. Then he looked at Anzu, a warmth he'd felt only once before, and not this strong, filling him. "She helped me."

Anzu, still helping him to stay on his feet, smiled back at him, and he thought he saw that same warmth in her own eyes. He wanted to see it, at least.

Atemu eyed them all, his gaze lingering a little more on Yuugi than the others. "I see we have a lot to talk about."

"We do." Honda agreed, before he looked once again at Anzu. There was something he wanted to do first, though. The sorcerer had already said his name, but he'd never introduced himself to her. Perhaps it was time. "You can call me Honda."

Surely it was his imagination, but Anzu's smile seemed warmer than all the ones before it. "Nice to meet you, Honda. Care to introduce us to your friends?"

"It would be my pleasure." Honda turned back to the others, a thousand questions on his lips and knowing that finally, after fifty years, he'd have his answers.

**The End**


End file.
